A tree blew over last Friday night and sideswiped a corner of my house before settling on the ground and garage. Yesterday and today I've been listening to chainsaws and dealt with the insurance adjustor and company doing a temporary repair. I'm feeling some serious cabin fever right now but the saws keep bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzg away.

I have not been idle however.

I managed to stitch this interlaced ladder stitch and I used a beautiful antique plum perle cotton size 12. It didn't show up so well this time so I also.....

scanned it with a black background. The size 12 perle is much finer than DMC size 20 and I felt confident enough to use the finer thread but it really didn't show up as much as I expected. I thought the buttonholing on the edges would look much finer and finished too but they look pretty bad!

Still, I like the overall effect. The directions say this stitch is for the experienced and the level is "difficult". I didn't really think so, compared to other stitiches I've tried but I guess it could be. There are only the 4 stitches shown in this book for drawn work. Next is the project which is a curtain where you use this last stitch with a double interlacing. Now, THAT could get tricky.

The book is packed with stitches of all nature but I need to get it back to the library. Actually, when I referenced my much coveted and much unused The Complete Stitch Encylopedia by Jan Eaton (used copies from .05¢ ?????) I found more complete diagrams (which is why I loved that book and scrimped to buy it full price years ago) so I'm not too concerned about returning the other book.

Did you know the hemstitch was actually meant to catch in the folded edge of the hem while you created a decorative insertion at the same time? I guess I should break out the embroidery thread and make a sample of as many of these nearly 700 stitches as I can.

Another day.....